7 Aeons
Eloisa Stawasz
AeonAn Aeon (Art by Limonc)AliasesEons, Ages, The Incorruptibles, The Perfects, Aions, Lords of ChaosPhysical CharacteristicsEyesNone, varies by avatarHairNone, varies by avatarSkinNone, varies by avatarOrigin and StatusOriginEmanated from God and BarbeloHomePleromaClassified asSpirit
The Aeons are the various emanations of God and Barbelo, similar to primordials, they are abstractions, personifications of concepts. The Aeons are known as the Lords of Chaos since they represent the other side of the coin of the universe, they represent the Yin side of the cosmos, that is, the Aeons personify chaos, darkness, space, and femininity, while the Lords of Order, the Archons, represent the Yang side, that is, they personify order, light, time and masculinity. Gnostics believed that Order is evil and Chaos is good.
The Aeons are ineffable beings who were emanated from the constant mixture between the Ineffable Goddess and the Heavenly Father; as the two were beings without barriers to each other and without limits, when the two met they were like two galaxies when they merge, the two danced, twirled and blended into the into each other, from this ineffable union, the Perfects emerged.
Their is a complex hierarchy among the Aeons based on their distance from God and the edge of Pleroma, their home realm. The ones closer to God are held in high regard while the one further from God are mostly ignored. Funnily enough, Sophia is the furthest from God while also being one of the most famous Aeons; though her way of getting notability wasn't finest.
There have been many misconceptions when it comes to Aeons and their relationship to the physical world, especially among Gnostic groups. In their mind, the physical world is rife with sin and pain while the Aeons are supposedly perfect, to be physical is to be wrong. This thinking however has been disproved time and time again. Any being with any amount of sapience is capable of doing good and causing pain, regardless of their physicality.
Aeons may be emanations of the prefect God, but that doesn't mean they themselves are perfect. Emanation are like sun rays, the Sun may be able to melt skin but a sun ray can only bring sweat to the skin.
Aeons are often emanated in male-female pairs, referred to as syzygies, that are permanently connected in a way. Breaking these pairs causes irreparable damage to the physical plane, resulting in glitches of sorts. Furthermore, aeons can't create anything without their partner, the only time this was tried was resulted creatures that should have never been born.
Aeons are native to the Pleroma, a spiritual realm of pure light and energy that is made up of the Aeons. If Aeons didn't exist, then neither would the Pleroma. The further the Aeon is from God the further the Aeon is to the edges of the Pleroma, beyond which exist the other more physical realms. The Pleroma is a realm of pure ideal and sense, an immaterial plane where God lives when He isn't in Heaven. In a way, the Pleroma and the Aeons are more "real" than anything on the physical plane.
Aeons are the source of immaterial, they are living hypostatic concepts that hold the universe together. This makes them similar to deities in a way, though they are still, different. If it were to be put in human terms, deities are like batteries while aeons are pure lightning bolts. The former contains and distributes energy while the latter is the energy itself.
Aeons are different from angels, though similar. Aeons are abstractions, concepts, living forces far beyond human comprehension. Sophia, for example, is the very personification of wisdom and also of faith, while her Mother, Barbelo, is much greater than that, she is ineffability, motherhood and silence. Aeons are always described as absurdly powerful beings, transcending the entire physical universe and the ignorant and blind, Yaldabaoth. They are called perfect and incorruptible, showing their holiness.
In a Gnostic sense, Aeons are the perfect emanations of God that are variously defined depending on the Gnostic group. Within most systems, they are the immaterial source of all being, embodying non-physical concepts like wisdom or love. In the Gnostic view, Aeons (immateriality) is perfect while physical beings (materiality) are flawed.
While most Gnostic groups have them all directly emanated from God, Valentinus, Ptolemy, and Colorbasus believed that pairs of Aeons could emanate other pairs of Aeons, though their "family trees" depended by the source. According to Marcus, the Aeons were numbers and sounds.
Aeons are an inscrutable family of monitors2 who serve to preserve order and balance throughout the Great Beyond. They constantly maintain a balance between pairs of forces beyond the knowledge of mortals.345
Aeons care nothing about their outward shapes, often taking the forms of abstract swirls of quintessence dense enough to interact with others. Their bodies are almost uniform in density and composition and rarely harmful to the touch. Some aeons adopt vaguely humanoid forms, but only vaguely.67
Aeons are created on the Astral Plane. When two opposite thoughts broadcast from other planes coalesce on the Astral Plane and collide, they form aeonic nebulae, which flash with momentary bursts of emotional auras and crackle in metaphysical debates. As a nebula grows into a critical mass, a new aeon is created, embodying the dichotomy of the nebula where it was born. From there, most aeons disperse to wherever they are needed in the multiverse and use the Astral Plane primarily for transport; only bythos continue to reside in the Astral Plane after their creation.8
All aeons are bound in a state called Monad, an omnipresent philosophy3 or demigod that has existed since the multiverse's beginning and represents the supreme oneness between all aeons and the multiverse itself. Aeons exist as an extension of the multiverse in the same way that organs form a normal creature, and understand themselves as parts of the Monad's whole instead of viewing it as a divine patron. When destroyed or upon accomplishing specific goals, they fade back to the planar fabric and their energies are recycled by the Monad.6
Aeons are created with all knowledge deemed necessary to fulfill their task, and are constantly tapped into the Monad to receive instructions. However, the connection between the Monad and individual aeons is imperfect, giving them some personal agency in completing their tasks.6
Aeons are not actively malicious but care nothing for individual beings or their struggles and emotions, and have no sense of self-preservation. Creating or destroying life, and triggering a calamity or preventing it mean equally little in their manipulation of symmetry; only the final tally matters. All life is life and all death is death, to be protected or eradicated regardless of shape.6
Aeons have no culture, society, personality, or memory beyond the present. Aeons embodying greater multiversal principles are usually considered greater, and their works proceed without hesitation when their goals jeopardise or threaten lesser aeons. Aeons only cooperate in matters of great existential concern when directed by the Monad, and only temporarily. They see every task as independent from others, and might fully support an individual whom they have clashed violently against in the past. The very act of forming organisations is alien to them, as is the notion that non-aeons can be allies or enemies. To them, only two states of association exist: those that are part of the Monad, and those that are not.6
Aeons are willing to talk as long as doing so does not impede their work, but communication with them often results in frustration and misunderstanding. Pointing an aeon to another target, asking for its help, or dissuading it from doing its task is an almost impossible goal.6
Outsiders often have difficulty understanding aeons' duality, even more so than mortals do. Shulsagas view them as messengers, are adept at interpreting their communications, and almost always follow their instructions. Psychopomps respect aeons' work as custodians but also mysteriously view them as rivals.6
While aeons form in the Astral Plane,8 they will then immediately manifest where the Monad needs them to fulfill their task, using the Astral Plane as a mere means of transport. When doing so, they appear as if tearing themselves spontaneously from the very fabric of the destination plane itself. Aeons can only manifest in some particular areas, allowing their foes to prepare for their arrival. So, aeons have no home plane like other outsiders: theirs is the entire multiverse.6
Aeons recently returned to prominence in Axis and revealed that axiomites are also aeons, and by extension that aeons are also masters of axiomites' inevitable creations and consider them to be aeons as well. These revelations came as part of the cyclical Convergence in Axis by a council of pleromas. Most, but not all, axiomites and inevitables have joined forces with aeons as a result; those who have resisted have been met with mixed fates of destruction or bargaining.35
In the Maelstrom, legions of aeons guard the Antipode from regular assaults by proteans and prevent the cycle of souls from disruption, holding back the Maelstrom from consuming the entire multiverse.10
Aeons travel to the Universe to correct imbalances as directed by the Monad. It is difficult to determine which half of the duality is currently being enforced by an aeon, and an aeon's presence can be anything from rapturous to apocalyptic depending on how much its goals align with those of nearby mortals. In the latter case, aeons often become perceived as monsters by local cultures, even if their atrocities might end up being beneficial on a more-than-mortal timescale.6
The Monad's followers often summon aeons to provide guidance and approval, as the Monad itself is an extremely distant patron. They are particularly adept at asking aeons questions and interpreting their vague answers.11
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